kb, now part of fc copenhagen, is the second danish clubs in this top 30 countdown, a remarkable feat for danish football. jeunesse, nice, st-gilloise, wiener sc and milan lost positions due to their lack of success or even showing in continental competitions. milan's drop from 9th to 25th is maybe most remarkable. ifk malmö, burnley and hradec all made it to the quarterfinals of the european cup and therefore appear in the top 30.

wismut, now known as erzgebirge aue, hold steady in the top 20, and inter joins them from 22nd, taking the lead in the city of milano. ujpesti finally followed up their national success in europe, while cska sofia remains constant in the top 20. agf aarhus, denmark's best team of the time, finally leaves its mark in europe too and is the first danish club in the top 20. dinamo zagreb rise from 19th to 11th, knocking on the door of the top ten list. manchester united and ifk göteborg leave the top 30 altogether, as does atletico madrid. finally, we see hamburg now leading the german clubs, just in front of frankfurt, as the wanderers drop out of the top 10.

thanks to the lack of regulation and barcelona's participation in the inter-cities fairs cup, the catalans passed real madrid to lead the continental rankings, despite not winning the european cup. benfica achieved that, and came out of no where to third as a consequence. still, it seems fitting that barcelona dethroned real, since they eliminated the holders early in the season. the rangers held fourth place, while birmingham now became the best english club internationally, after losing two icf-cups in a row. cup winners fiorentina and roma joined the top 10, while bern and belgrade lost a few places, but managed to maintain their top ten status. the surprise of the ranking is probably european cup semifinalist rapid wien, who even placed themselves right in front of swiss neighbors bern.

current league rankings (1956-61): serie a is the best of the rest

the former yugoslavia

still under spanish domination, the big leagues from italy, england and germany start their pursue of the spanish dominators. here are the top 20 leagues in europe in 1961.

notable improvements in the status of the czech and danish leagues, with the others basically holding their ground - including luxembourg, still in the top 20. netherland dropped 5 places, belgium even six - and out of the top ten european leagues.

first a tribute to yugoslavia, not only the only eastern european country in the top ten, but even breaking in to the top 5 - thanks to zagreb and belgrade! portugal gained 14 positions in one season - that happens when the european champion plays in your league. france dropped five places and almost out of the top 10, while italy left germany and england behind.

current national club rankings (1956-61): real overtakes barcelona

this club later moved to frankfurt / oder

this ranking is weighted towards the current 1960/61 season, but considers the past five years of national football only, counting good campaigns, league titles and cup finalists. here goes the updated top 30; for more info on the season itself, go to the national part of the season highlights.

a lot of national champions in that first part of the list. sevilla slipped from the top 10 to almost outside of the list because they had nothing to show for in the 1960/61 season. dinamo zagreb didn't win the yugoslavian league, but only lost 8 positions because of it. köln and frankfurt didn't win in germany either, but they did well enough to lose only two spots (köln) or even gain two (frankfurt). all the others won their national championships and are new to the top 30, besides monaco, who were 25th before.

partizan and the rangers were in the top 20 already and won their domestic leagues, rising a few spots. for the yugos, that meant being number one at home, leaving red star, former 7th, behind them. rapid won the national cup but still slipped three positions, while werder bremen is the big newcomer, after winning the german cup and doing well in the championship. at this point, they were third in the german internal rankings. milan and fiorentina both slipped a few places, with milan passing their toscan rivals despite them winning the coppa italia. and burnley slips three places after a pretty good premiership campaign. i guess we should also mention stade de reims, who remain the strongest french team but slipped six places.

four spanish teams in the top 10 still show their power, mostly for atletico, who climbed from 9th to 3rd after winning the cup and coming second in la liga. real madrid turned the tables on barcelona winning the league and reaching the cup final, while barca's season wasn't even decent. juve continued their italian domination and rose to fourth, taking wolverhampton's place. the english team lost their national number one status to an impressive tottenham, whose double catapulted them from no-where to fifth. current german champions nürnberg just managed to edge out the more constant hamburg, both now ahead of young boys bern, who failed to clinch their national league for a fifth year in a row.

official current club ranking (1956-61): who will take on the two spanish giants?

this looks east german, right?

taking into consideration national and continental achievements, and with a weighted emphasis on the 1960/61 season, these were the best 30 clubs in europe.

six teams left the top 30 comparing to the previous year's ranking: göteborg, jeunesse esch, hearts, schalke, b 1909 and most prominently sparta rotterdam, who slipped from 23rd to 45th. köln basically took schalke's place, austria became the third austrian in the top 30 (a unique accomplishment in the history of austrian football), ujpesti found its way into the top 30 after adding international flavor to their domestic success, and inter-cities fairs cup winner as roma also entered the prestigious list. bilbao slipped from 9th to 29th after a lackluster season, while partizan basically stood their ground through domestic glory. wismut dropped from the top 20 but still made the list as only east german club, and cska just dropped out of the top 20, only losing 3 positions in the process. the same happened to wiener sc, but they dropped 12 spots. finally, one can welcome inter to the list - no trophies, but a relatively good season at home and in europe.

an interesting mix in the top 20 part of the list, with tottenham and juventus showing what good league form can do even without any european success. juve advanced 2 spots through winning the serie a, while tottenham appears on the list soley because of their double. they are the second english team on the ranking, right ahead of burnley and birmingham, which is on the list strictly because of inter-cities fairs cup success. milan left the top ten to just make it into the top 20, while aarhus are the danish pride, making it into the top 20 of europe. frankfurt and reims are top 10 dropouts, slipping eight and seven places respectively. they both held themselves well because of decent domestic seasons. dinamo zagreb rose from 26th, and seem to cement yugoslavia's new found position as a european top league. finally, fiorentina is the italian leader in the rankings. so no italian clubs in the top ten (a very rare occasion), and they are led by the team who won two trophies in the season - coppa italia and cup winner's cup!

things change. real madrid used domestic force to keep in front of barcelona, who had eliminated them early on in the european cup. the duo is being followed by a distance, but benfica might well become a threat, coming from outside of the top 30 to the number 3 spot. that spot belonged to the young boys, who still are holding up very well in 7th. red star, former 4th, dropped even more, to 9th; so the attack towards the top might come from glasgow rangers, who had two good european seasons and recent domestic success putting them in 4th, from 8th. wolverhampton hold their own in the middle of the top 10, slightly slipping from the top 5, because of atletico madrid's great domestic season seeing them rise from 11th to 5th. hamburg rose 14 places right into the top ten after their semifinal appearance in europe and continued good domestic form, while rapid goes two better than wiener sc last season to put an austrian club into the top ten.

official all-time club ranking (1955-1961): top 7 remain unchanged; rapid in the top ten!

amongst the very best: vasas

just addin' up all the points; no weights, just pure tradition (of six years). the ultimate ranking of the european cup era, including national and continental points. 35 teams appeared in the rankings for the first time, reaching a total of 295 teams. after 10 european competitions and six national seasons, this is how things stand:

grasshoppers, schalke and anderlecht left the top 30 and made room for constant team internazionale and double winner hotspur. vasas held their position with their hungarian league title, while birmingham rose three places, and dinamo zagreb five even. dortmund, wiener sc, sevilla fc, ogc nice and wismut all left the top 20, with the spaniards suffering the biggest drop - nine positions down. so the top 20 should be full of winners...

hamburg replaced frankfurt as best german team in history, and manchester holds on as best english team, albeit out of the top 10. juventus jumps 6 places into the top 20, aarhus even made up eight positions to also make the top 20 in this ranking. benfica made the biggest leap, of course, coming from outside the ranking to 14th, and both cska and atletico were also amongst the winners, gaining one position each. finally, partizan should be mentioned, making it 2 yugoslavian clubs in the top 20.

real madrid opens up a 639-point gap to barcelona, more than the third placed team has in total, and that team is still spanish side bilbao. stade de reims holds on to fourth, just edging out red star by a point, and milan manages to do the same to the boys from switzerland. rapid makes the top ten by one point, leaving atletico madrid on the outside. thus, the first seven positions remain completely unchanged, while rangers and fiorentina gain a spot each, and rapid four. even not fairing too well in the current rankings, milan remains the best italian club in the all-time ranking.

titles up to 1961: cska sofia and olympiacos lead the way...

fc vaduz

the sheer amount of silverware sometimes is interesting to look at. the main title winners after six seasons of the european cup era: